When we look up at the stars then we can imagine patterns based upon
our experiences.  For example, the ancient Greeks believed that they
saw the image of Orion the hunter.  Imagine that you are an ancient
Greek astronomer who has a powerful telescope.  You have been
transported directly to a planet (where you can survive) near the star
Sirius.  You look back in the direction of the earth and can see the
sun of our solar system and its surrounding stars.  What stars do you
group in the constellation and what pattern do you imagine?  Please
put answer in the form of a labelled picture.  You're answer may
become part of a poem, so your permission is also sought to use your
name and the answer.

---

Clarification of Question by dinodinosaur-ga on 07 Nov 2005 11:15 PST

Thank you herrbrahms.  I will email you.  Perhaps we can have some fun
with this one.  The first two responses were from herrbrahms and
tigger71.  So I will consider the question is almost answered.  I say
almost because you have seen an anchor (ancient Greek symbol) and
tigger71 has seen a dragon with sun in neck or perhaps a dolphin with
sun in eye.  It may be that the dolphin may be more of an ancient
Greek symbol than a dragon (i'm not sure) At any rate, why not let the
readers decide. Do you see an anchor, dolphin or dragon? Will you
allow the readers to vote on which one they see?

---

Clarification of Question by dinodinosaur-ga on 07 Nov 2005 11:17 PST

tigger71 Thank you Rob.  I will email you.  Perhaps we can have some
fun with this one.  The first two responses were from herrbrahms and
tigger71.  So I will consider the question is almost answered.  I say
almost because you have seen an anchor (ancient Greek symbol) and
tigger71 has seen a dragon with sun in neck or perhaps a dolphin with
sun in eye.  The dolphin may be more of an ancient Greek symbol than a
dragon? At any rate, why not let the readers decide. Do you see an
anchor, dolphin or dragon? Will you agree to this arrangement?

---

Clarification of Question by dinodinosaur-ga on 07 Nov 2005 18:27 PST

Perhaps we can look at the question from other perspectives.  What
stars would we include in a constellation viewed from Sirius?  For
example, would you include the closest stars Alpha Centauri A,B and C
at 4.3 light years, Barnard's star at 6 light years, Wolf 359 at 7.7
and Luten A,B at 7.9 etc. Perhaps you might emphasize brightness, so
we include Alpha C with visual apparent magnitude of 11, Bernard's
Star with vam of 9.5, Wolf with vam of 13.5 and Luyten A,B with vam of
about 13. On the other hand, could we use a combination of closeness
to our sun and brightness.  These stars would be Alpha Centauri C,
Bernard's Star, Wolf 359 Luyten A and B.  Might we arbitrarily chose
our sun as the centre of a constellation and then look for surrounding
stars? Might we look for a close constellation and see what stars
might relate to our sun? It has been suggested by herrbrams that we
look at Aquila.

Hi Dennis,

I used Starry Night 5 to plot this for you.  In order to view these
images, I recommend turning off the lights in the room, then viewing
them as a full screen at 1024x768 resolution.  At first glance it
probably looks pretty bland, but in the dark, it'll look much as the
real night sky does.  You can choose to identify whichever stars you
wish to match up with the Sun.  The files are designed to give you
four different looks at this patch of sky, as seen from Sirius.  A
wide and tight shot, both with the constellations drawn in, and
without them.

Note the approximate size of the constellations that already exist. 
The trouble with your idea, on the surface, is that 1) you are not far
enough from the Sun to substantially change what the sky looks like 2)
you're merely adding one star to the mix.  Poetically it is quite
beautiful, but as a matter of science, you have to get much farther
from home to substantially change the sky.  And the Catch 22 is that
if you get much farther away than this, the Sun soon becomes an
anonymous speck among stars.  Consider yourself fortunate in that
respect, though.  If we had to live near an O or B class blue star,
chances are next to zero that a planet capable of sustaining life
would have evolved.  They burn with an intensity many times that of
our star, and live lives much shorter.  They are rock stars, and you
don't want a rock star living next door.

One last thing: the Summer Triangle is an asterism, which is an
informal collection of stars that people use for reference.  It's
different from a constellation, which is officially recognized as a
certain patch of the sky.  The most famous example is the Big Dipper,
which is an asterism that forms only part of the constellation Ursa
Major, the Great Bear.  What I'm getting at, is that this anchor I
identified is way too big to be a conventional constellation.  If you
wanted something more constellation-sized, you'd probably connect the
Sun into Aquila somehow.  If you were to do that, you'd probably want
to use the closer view of that particular area of sky, in order to
evaluate what you think it looks like.  So I'm giving you the two
close images for that purpose.

I'm reposting this email on google so others can read.  Too bad I
can't post the pictures also.  Good luck with your project!

Dan Adams

Gah!  They removed my post because my name was in it or
something...let's try again.

Hi you,

I used Starry Night 5 to plot this for you.  In order to view these
images, I recommend turning off the lights in the room, then viewing
them as a full screen at 1024x768 resolution.  At first glance it
probably looks pretty bland, but in the dark, it'll look much as the
real night sky does.  You can choose to identify whichever stars you
wish to match up with the Sun.  The files are designed to give you
four different looks at this patch of sky, as seen from Sirius.  A
wide and tight shot, both with the constellations drawn in, and
without them.

Note the approximate size of the constellations that already exist. 
The trouble with your idea, on the surface, is that 1) you are not far
enough from the Sun to substantially change what the sky looks like 2)
you're merely adding one star to the mix.  Poetically it is quite
beautiful, but as a matter of science, you have to get much farther
from home to substantially change the sky.  And the Catch 22 is that
if you get much farther away than this, the Sun soon becomes an
anonymous speck among stars.  Consider yourself fortunate in that
respect, though.  If we had to live near an O or B class blue star,
chances are next to zero that a planet capable of sustaining life
would have evolved.  They burn with an intensity many times that of
our star, and live lives much shorter.  They are rock stars, and you
don't want a rock star living next door.

One last thing: the Summer Triangle is an asterism, which is an
informal collection of stars that people use for reference.  It's
different from a constellation, which is officially recognized as a
certain patch of the sky.  The most famous example is the Big Dipper,
which is an asterism that forms only part of the constellation Ursa
Major, the Great Bear.  What I'm getting at, is that this anchor I
identified is way too big to be a conventional constellation.  If you
wanted something more constellation-sized, you'd probably connect the
Sun into Aquila somehow.  If you were to do that, you'd probably want
to use the closer view of that particular area of sky, in order to
evaluate what you think it looks like.  So I'm giving you the two
close images for that purpose.

I'm reposting this email on google so others can read.  Too bad I
can't post the pictures also.  Good luck with your project!

~me